I had a request to stand in this morning for my fellow blogger, scchua, who is having a well-earned rest. I was happy to agree, but started to have second thoughts when I saw the setter’s name. I just can’t get on with this compiler, the consequence of which is that there are a number that I can’t parse. So in the interests of getting a blog out, I will ask for help with those. Thanks in advance.
Abbreviations
cd cryptic definition
dd double definition
(xxxx)* anagram
anagrind = anagram indicator
[x] letter(s) removed
definitions are underlined
Across
8 Way to generate income, when artist is English
MONETISE
A charade of Claude MONET for the ‘artist’, IS and E.
9 Hairy place to be seen with your hand up
ARMPIT
A (not very good) cryptic definition.
10 Conclusion is imminent, when pawn is lost
ENDING
[P]ENDING
12 Dreadful rain must dampen its bare appeal
NATURISM
An attempt at something &littish, I think. (RAIN MUST)* with ‘dreadful’ as the anagrind.
13 Empty lake beside a field of grass
LEA
L[AK]E plus A.
14 Pulse that is usually found on the head
BEANIE
A charade of BEAN for one of many types of ‘pulse’ and IE gives you the hat. Definition by example, anyone?
16 Hear about a noble comeback
REAPPEAR
‘Hear’ is a homophone indicator, so if it’s positioned at the start of the clue I’m expecting the remainder of it to be the homophone, which isn’t the case here. It’s a charade of RE, A and a homophone of PEER. And REAPPEAR doesn’t mean ‘comeback’: you can have ‘come back’ for REAPPEAR or REAPPEARANCE for ‘comeback’. Apart from that, it’s impeccably clued.
17 Criticise weird sect going in for medical procedure
PET SCAN
An insertion of (SECT)* in PAN gives you Positron Emission Tomography scan. I did in fact know this, but I’m guessing that some members of the Quiptic community might not have.
20 Congress is a part of stable government
LEG-OVER
Hidden in stabLE GOVERnment. Sexual congress, obviously.
23 Unusual layout of capital city terminus
ATYPICAL
(CAPITAL Y)* with ‘layout’ as the anagrind.
24 Agree to send back note with charges
SEE FIT
A reversal of TI for the seventh note of the tonic sol-fa and FEES.
26 Vessel essential to house charred bones
URN
Another extended definition type of clue. The whole clue points to the answer; but it’s also the middle letters of hoUse chaRred boNes.
27 Exercising our men, so they become really big
ENORMOUS
(OUR MEN SO)* but I’m not sure what ‘they’ is doing in the surface.
28 Account overdrawn — change limits immediately
AT ONCE
I can’t see how this works, sorry.
Edit: thanks to those who pointed out that it’s the outside letters of the first three words of the clue.
31 Condition of late travellers often captured in photographs
REDEYE
A dd. A red eye flight is a comparatively recent coinage meaning a flight that gets you in completely jet-lagged.
32 Most nimble shot by father perhaps, getting run out
NIPPIEST
A charade of NIP for ‘shot’ of drink and P[R]IEST.
Down
1 Word from above is it’s not working
DOWN
I think this is oh so cleverly telling you that the word DOWN appears above this clue. This is a Quiptic, for goodness’ sake. A dd.
2 Legend one follows still
YETI
A charade of YET and I.
3 Commercial music
JINGLE
A not very convincing cd.
4 Chap tossing one, covering it in fat
LEONARD
An insertion of (ONE)* in LARD.
5 Don’t eat lean stew — it can make for a hectic life
FAST LANE
A charade of FAST and (LEAN)*
6 Communication device on the Mars probe beginning to go wrong
SMART PHONE
(ON THE MARS P)*
7 Lie about gallery’s beauty?
MISSTATE
A very whimsical way of saying that if the TATE gallery had a beauty contest, the winner would be MISS TATE.
11 It makes us turn up as well
DNA
A reversal (‘turn up’) of AND. Deoxyribonucleic acid does ‘make us’ in one sense, I suppose.
14 Smell power emanating from jazz
BOP
A charade of BO for body odour or ‘smell’ and P.
15 Snoop shows no interest in loud type leaving vehicle
NOSY PARKER
I need help with parsing this one, please.
Edit: thanks to those who explained this one; it’s NO[I]SY PARKER.
18 Held out for longer …
EXTENDED
A dd.
19 … and captured job that’s secure
ANCHORED
An insertion of CHORE in AND.
21 Bachelor leaves dry stag looking for mates
RUT
[B]RUT.
22 It says you can invite any partner along
PLUS ONE
Another weak cryptic definition. PLUS ONE is the invitation you get when someone wants you to bring another significant other, but doesn’t really know which one you’ll choose.
24 Smart agent grabs short sleep
SNAPPY
An insertion of NAP in SPY.
25 Zealot is so tasteless, when getting upset by female
FAN
I think this is something to do with a reversal of NAFF, but I can’t really see it, I’m afraid.
Edit: muffin has suggested that if you reverse FAN and add F, you end up with NAFF. I’m sure muffin’s right and that’s what the setter intended, but then what is ‘so’ doing in the surface when it doesn’t need to be there?
29 Lobbyist regularly shows little appreciation for those passed over
OBIT
The regular letters of lObByIsT.
30 Transition point starts to come under sustained pressure
CUSP
The first letters of ‘come under sustained pressure’.
Many thanks to Anto for this morning’s Quiptic.
28 ac is the first and last letters (limits) of account, overdrawn and change.
15 ac is ‘noisy parker’ (loud type leaving vehicle) minus i (interest).
I don’t get 25 ac either.
Thanks Anto and Pierre
Allow me to be the first to say “much harder than the Cryptic”. I can’t help with AT ONCE, but NOSY is NOISY without “Interest” and PARKER is “type leaving vehicle”, I think.
I liked LEG OVER and URN – the latter a true &lit for me.
25 is a sort of reverse clue. If you write FAN upside down and put Fenale next to it you get NAFF
I think 15d is noisy-i, (no interest,)and parker is a type/person leaving vehicle.
Thanks Anto and Pierre.
Thanks both.
28a is the limits (end letters) of AccounT OverdrawN ChangE
Sorry rog@1 – I must read the comments first!
Anto’s puzzles seem to go up and down, this one was down!
A mixed bag, but DNA was my favourite and NATURISM and LEG-OVER made me smile.
Thank you Anto and Pierre.
I enjoyed this puzzle even though I could not parse FAN and DOWN. Incidentally, there used to be a Tate and Lyle Beauty Contest.
Thanks to Anto and Pierre.
Poor Anto, really is an example of “give a dog a bad name” – I thought a lot of this was good fun, and while I agree that DOWN was stretching the envelope of a Quiptic, I enjoyed NATURISM, LEG-OVER, ARMPIT and REDEYE as nice examples of their kind of clue. AT ONCE was beautifully constructed imho and didn’t get the attention it deserved, although again stretching the limits of a Quiptic. As for REAPPEAR, isn’t it just a lift and separate? – well, ok it doesn’t really work. Of course if “comeback” is cast as a verb… but no.
Still, an enjoyable offering from a developing setter.
A curate’s egg, certainly, but I found multiple clever and amusing clues (leg-over, misstate, for example). Some were certainly too hard for a Quiptic, and some (e.g., fan) just don’t work.
Two of the cryptic definitions (jingle, plus one) didn’t seem cryptic to me.
I think that “reappear” is just fine: it’s a homophone of “Re: a peer”, and the definition is a lift-and-separate.
Thanks Pierre for the parsings, some of which passed me by (and thank you Anton, I enjoyed your puzzle).
I agree that the CDs were pretty weak, but I thought that overall you were being hard on the setter – seen a lot worse and most of the clues were AOK IMO, some very clever, and generally smooth and sometimes witty surfaces. DNA was good, as was FAN, MISS TATE etc. Too hard for the Quiptic slot though.
An enjoyable cryptic? Yes – despite a couple of glitches here and there. I liked LEG OVER and MONETISE.
A suitable Quiptic? No – this is the sort of puzzle which would have really knocked my confidence a couple of years ago when I was a beginner learning the dark arts of cryptics.
The editor should give Anto a go in a midweek slot and let’s see what the feedback is when we don’t have to take into account the puzzle’s suitability for beginners.
Thanks to Anto and Pierre.
What Alphalpha @9 said. I thought this was a great little crossword.
I came here because I couldn’t parse 21D (because I’m thick — thanks for the explanation, Pierre!) and 22D (because, I agree, it’s a poxy clue). Aside from the latter, all seemed very well clued to me (including 16A, despite the nitpicks: in suitable context I could well say “re a peer”) and several made me chuckle, especially my FOI, 11D, which is one of the most elegant clues for a three-letter answer I can remember seeing (Pierre, you need to learn more about DNA).
Should Anto be doing cryptics rather than quiptics, as Matrixmania @12 suggests? I’d go along with that . . . if only the Monday cryptic could stop being almost always at quiptic level.
Seems to be a regular theme: the Quiptic is harder than the cryptic, so why not put Rufus on Quiptic duty? So how exactly does one measure difficulty when the solution appears ‘obvious to most bloggers?
Yes, ARMPIT and JINGLE were gimmmes, but they give a simple entry into a puzzle aimed at beginner, so no complaints here: they also give me a false sense of how easy the crossword might be, as well as a doubt (really?).
REDEYE is common parlance in other countries, especially North America, and nearly always refers to an eastbound flight that starts late in the evening where the apparent duration (in hours) is the actual duration plus the number of time zones crossed. So for an LA to New York flight, your life has been displaced by 8 hours but the flight time was only 5 hours (approx). So, not having had much sleep, you arrive with “red-eyes.”
Another consideration is the existence of choice, so one would choose the redeye (overnight) flight from LA to New York where other alternatives exist: Vancouver to London flights are nearly all “redeye” flights, though never referred to as such.